Heat Treatment of Graphite Defects Produced by Irradiation with Ar Cluster Ions

We investigated defects produced on a graphite surface by bombardment with gas cluster ions consisting of hundreds or thousands of argon atoms, and examined the structural changes of these defects by heat treatment. Two types of defects, craters and dots, were observed in STM images of the ion-bomba...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:E-journal of surface science and nanotechnology 2012/04/07, Vol.10, pp.88-91
Main Authors: Tsukuda, Muneaki, Yokodera, Yuto, Moritani, Kosuke, Inui, Norio, Mochiji, Kozo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Gas cluster ion
Graphite
Ion bombardment
Ion-induced defects
Oxidation
Scanning tunneling microscopy
Surface defects
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Summary:We investigated defects produced on a graphite surface by bombardment with gas cluster ions consisting of hundreds or thousands of argon atoms, and examined the structural changes of these defects by heat treatment. Two types of defects, craters and dots, were observed in STM images of the ion-bombarded surfaces. The production of these defects depends on the average kinetic energy per constituent atom of the cluster ion, and the threshold energy for the production of the crater and dot are 5 eV and 1.5 eV, respectively. After heating an ion-bombarded sample to 560°C in air, the craters changed to hexagonal pits and most of the dots disappeared, although a few (∼ 10%) dots changed to irregularly shaped pits. We describe the formation mechanisms of the two pit types on the basis of the oxidative etching of ion-induced defects. [DOI: 10.1380/ejssnt.2012.88]
ISSN:1348-0391
1348-0391
DOI:10.1380/ejssnt.2012.88